


Thunderstorms in the Distance

by littlebluewhalen



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Violence, Oneshot, Parental Death, anyway bbrae rights in 2019, bbrae - Freeform, i truly cannot remember if i totally made up these backstories or not, im squeamish, mentions of child abuse, nothing graphic tho, romantic inclinations are there if you squint, this was written in like 2015???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 23:51:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21044849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlebluewhalen/pseuds/littlebluewhalen
Summary: Two team mates riddled with insurmountable insomnia find comfort in each other.





	Thunderstorms in the Distance

It was a stormy morning around the Titans tower. It was two in the morning, and all was silent. A feeling of calm resided in the Tower; the only movement was the soft rising and falling of the team's chests as their breath entered and left their bodies in a rhythmic, constant pattern. Alas, that would have been the case if two certain members of the infamous team weren't awake.

One of the two was Garfield Logan, known as Beast Boy, or Changeling, as he was trying to get people to call him. Rightfully so, too; he was no longer a boy in any sense of the word, except for his shining personality, though that had matured over the years, too. He had grown tall, retaining his somewhat lanky form, though consistent training and battling kept him in constant shape. His face lost its roundness, though his eyes did not; he still kept them open in optimism and wonderment, his ever-positive personality remaining present over the years. He still had the same smile, ears, face, but a sharper jaw and wilder hair. The only thing different besides his physical physique, really, was the fact that he understood when to take situations seriously, and when his team needed a laugh. He also reached his full potential as what he was: a shapeshifter. He could switch forms with lightning speed, even able to take the form of mythical creatures. This came with added perks, like being able to use his heightened animalistic senses when he was a human; he could tell what someone was feeling, he could recognize someone by their scent, the sound of their footsteps, or their taste in the air. Garfield Logan, now 19 years old, had grown up into a wonderful Changeling. The team had been together for six years now, and in those six years, all of them had forged bonds with each other that could not be severed.

The other in the restless duo was Raven. Raven had not grown much in the physical sense, though she grew a few inches and became more muscular with the constant fighting the superhero life offered. Though she was still a recluse by force, she has been able to open up more to her friends, letting them into her life, and showing them emotion when she allowed herself, when she knew it was safe. And she was happy, yet composed to say that these moments were becoming more frequent. In what seemed to be a past life, the empath wouldn't even risk a smile at the inherent fear that she would lose control of her powers and harm someone; she had broken plenty of lightbulbs. However, this goal, to be able to laugh and smile and be with her friends, drove her forward to exploring the full strength and limits of her powers, and grasping a better control on them. As soon as she realized that she wasn't alone, that her friends supported and even loved her, she had become determined to be able to be an active member of the team, emotions and all. So, she trained, she practiced, she learned about her powers. Her strength now was almost immeasurable. This fact should have frightened her, as it did years ago, but she also felt herself fortify, in spirit and mind. Though her powers grew, she grew alongside them, actually using them and controlling them.

But some nights, it seemed like her work was all for naught.

And some nights, Garfield felt like nothing he did would ever ease the ache he felt in his heart.

Tonight, with the storm rumbling in the background with all of its mighty destructive force, was one of those nights. Tossing and turning, both members of the sleepless party finally gave up. Raven got up and floated to the kitchen to make some herbal tea, hopefully to calm herself down, and to relax herself enough to sleep.

She reached her destination, lethargically pouring water in the kettle and setting it on the stove, turning it on. She sighed and stayed at the counter, putting her head in her hands after pulling out a mug and some wildflower honey. So many thoughts were racing in her mind, about herself, her inability to show her emotions, her friends, and everything. She was like this a lot in the first few years, but she's been a lot more positive and hopeful about herself and her life in the past years. Sometimes she just regressed back into her old ways; sometimes she just had bad nights. It's probably because she's always bottled it up with an air-tight seal, but she decided to ignore that.

The empath was so tired that she hadn't sensed another person was awake. The opening of the double sliding doors jolted her slightly, along with the whistling of the hot water. A yawn and confused noise rang in her ears, and she tiredly turned her head towards the source. In walked Changeling in all his glory, in his pajama pants and tee shirt. He looked at her slightly, but just walked over to the couch and laid down. She could sense he was severely upset, and it wasn't just her empathy that told her; he was moving slowly, tiredly, just as she was.

She poured herself the tea and put in some honey, and started floating back to her room, when she sensed it; extreme loneliness coming from his character. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she floated over to the couch. She understood how he was feeling, and she couldn't just ignore it. She was right next to the couch as lightening lit up the room and thunder shook the tower's windows. It was a low, rumbling kind of thunder, the kind that made you think the sky was ripping apart again. She saw that he was in fetal position, awake, staring at the wall. She grabbed the blanket on the back of the couch and pulled it over top of him. She set her tea down on the table and tapped his legs lightly.

"Gar. Move up a little bit." She said softly, her words filling the emptiness of the room. He didn't say anything, but obliged, giving her enough room to sit down. She picked up her mug and drank from it. Silence ensued for a few moments, thunder rolling in the distance being the only sound. She studied him.

"Alright. Speak. You need to. Don't fight me on this. Tell me what's up." She commanded. He looked at her, and looked away. In the lightening, she saw the slightest shake of his head.

"Changeling." She said sternly. He looked back at her, looking at every detail of her face, observing her closely. She didn't know what he was looking for, because they already trusted each other. They had to.

"I just didn't want to be in my room." He responded, his eyes not leaving her general direction. His voice was raspy and it seemed to take a lot of effort out of him to say that phrase. She saw the dullness in his dark green eyes as thunder crashed.

"Okay. And why?" She questioned further.

"Why are you out here?" He shot back, eyes moving to hers.

"Tea." was her simple response. He grunted and turned his head away. He heard her sigh.

"Garfield, if I tell you what's on my mind, will you tell me what's wrong with you?" She tried to compromise. He was silent for a moment, but he sat up and faced her, sitting cross-legged on the couch. He moved the blanket over to her lap, covering them both. It was an act of subconscious kindness that she was surprised by, but not unaccustomed to. That was one of her favorite things about him; he did these little things without even thinking about it. It was second nature to him.

"I guess that's doable." He replied. He nodded at her, beckoning to tell her story. She sighed once again; this was the last thing she wanted to do, but she knew her friend needed to talk. Besides, it wasn't anything she hadn't really told her team before.

"I'm just remembering old times. Trigon, my purpose, how I almost- how I did- kill thousands of people. Some nights, I just question if I can ever escape it. I know I'll never be able to… completely control the demon, so sometimes I wonder why I try. Most nights I'm fine, but some nights, I can't sleep. Tonight's just one of them." She concluded, not wanting to get into details of what she was feeling with her companion. She was only being this open for his own well-being.

Garfield stayed quiet for a while, and Raven stayed patient, knowing he might need a minute to process it and to organize his thoughts. He suddenly spoke up, as sudden as the lightening illuminating the clouds.

"Well, Rae, all that stuff happened like, four years ago… it's over. You're different. You vanquished him, you know that. And, personally, I think you're doing great with expressing control over your powers, and emotions. You're making incredible progress Raven, when a lot of people would have just given up. So I hope these nights become less frequent." He responded, looking directly at the demoness this time.

"…How do you know they're frequent?" the 21 year old questioned. He sighed this time.

"I have extremely protective instincts. I'm alerted, even if I'm sleeping, when someone moves a great deal. I know you haven't been sleeping lately. You can sense things with your powers; I can sense it with all of the animals inside me." She sat, somewhat stunned. He took that as silence from her, for him to share his part.

"I haven't been sleeping lately, either. It's taking its toll on me, as you can probably tell from my lack of jokes," he paused as thunder boomed, right after the lightening flash that allowed her to see a trace of a faint smile on his face. "Anyway. It's just kind of difficult… to deal with everything. I try not to think about the past too often, but I never got closure, so it's hard to move on. And, plus, sleeping with the instincts of nocturnal animals is no easy task. I also have, like I said, very powerful protective instincts… I'm a very light sleeper, because I have to be, to protect my family, like a big mother bear." He stopped and chuckled to himself. "Constant vigilance, you know. Sometimes it feels like everyone animal on the planet is just running around in my mind, making me do this and feel that, and it wears me down sometimes."

She waited for him to continue on, and when he didn't, she spoke.

"You can get closure right now, Gar, with me. Tell me what happened to you... as for everything else, I would say we're in the same shitty boat." He chuckled again slightly at that last remark.

"Yeah, I guess we are."

She eyed him seriously, wrapping her fingers even tighter around her now cold mug. She then gave him a piece of comfort.

"You have the beast inside of you, Changeling. That won't go away, just like my demon side. But, it's our duty to control it… and I would say we've been doing pretty damn well. We're both dark creatures, Gar. But we've been lucky enough to grow up surrounded by these wonderful friends and people... that thought makes my powers much easier to control. I do it for them. I do it for you. I know how a lot of things messing in your brain can be, that's my emotions every day. I still haven't really figured out how to keep them all at bay, except to, well, incorporate them with each other. I decide what I'm truly feeling at that moment, and I release that emotion. Maybe… you can do that with your animal instincts. If I find a better way, I'll let you know." She finished her speech with a sip of her cold tea. He stared at her, and she could see him thinking. He then just stared at her for a few moments.

"When I was a baby, I was born in Africa. I grew up a happy baby, but when I was a toddler, I was bitten by a rare monkey that my parents were studying. It gave me some weirdo disease. They tried to save me, with a serum they invented, but as you can tell, things went wrong. Really wrong. I became green and had these… abilities. Any animal I saw, I could suddenly become. I mean, as a kid that was awesome. It still is, but… sometimes I'm not sure it's worth what happened. I mean, yeah, I've saved a lot of people, but… I couldn't save them." He stopped, and Raven saw a faraway look in his eyes. He seemed to be in deep thought. She laid a hand on his knee, a rare sign of solidarity and affection. He snapped out of his trance and looked down at her hand. With another flash of lightening, she saw him smiling at her. A small, vulnerable, trusting smile. He continued on with a deep breath.

"One day, we were boating on the river. Something went horribly wrong. Next thing I know, my parents are going over a waterfall, begging me to change into a bird to fly away… and I did. I shouldn't have. I could have saved them." He stopped again. Raven felt his pain wash over her. She set her mug on the coffee table and used her other hand to grab his, laying in his lap, and looked at him.

"Gar, you were a child…" she whispered.

"Anyway," he resumed, clearing his throat, "After that, I was an orphan. Two guys knew of my powers I guess, so they took me, far away from home. They kidnapped me, beat me, and starved me, all so I would do their crimes for them. Pathetic." He murmured, trailing off. She squeezed his hand; she didn't want him to think of that.

He looked at her and continued.

"Some legal stuff happened after I was rescued, and basically, this guy named Nicholas won custody of me… my parents were scientists, so they were pretty loaded with cash. Well, good old Saint Nick decided to steal all of my money. But, when that started to run out, he tried to kill me so I wouldn't tell anyone. Crazy bastard, right?" He laughed hollowly. Raven stared, thoroughly surprised. She always knew he was hiding something with his cheesy jokes and constant positivity, but she never imagined it would be this deep.

"The guy he hired to kill me was stopped by the Doom Patrol… They took me in. They were my family. But… nothing I ever did was good enough for Mento… so, you know, I left. And, here I am."* He concluded. Raven said nothing.

She moved her hand from his knee to grab his other hand that was resting on the back of the couch, and held both of them in hers above their laps. She squeezed them slightly.

"I've always tried to stay happy, because I like seeing people happy. It makes me feel good. Seeing people smile and laugh because of me, well… it makes everything better, just a little bit. But sometimes it's just hard to keep a smile on. Sometimes they're fake. No one can usually tell, though."

"I'm sorry, Gar. I hope telling someone all of this helped you get it off your chest." She responded. He smiled at her, and his eyes flicked down to her hands, where her thumbs were rubbing over his own calloused hands, comforting him more than she could ever know.

"It felt nice for someone to just listen." He replied. They stayed like that for a few moments, enjoying each other's company. The rain had faded. Garfield yawned.

"Tired? Think you can sleep?" Raven asked. Gar nodded.

"How 'bout you?" He questioned back. She nodded, leaving her cup on the coffee table. He got up with her from the couch and they said their goodnights. As Garfield was walking out of the room, he turned, and paused.

"Raven, thank you. For everything." He said sincerely. She smiled at him and nodded, grabbed the cup, walked over to the sink and poured the rest of its contents out.

They both went to sleep peacefully, knowing they had forged an inseparable bond that night.


End file.
